Web 2.0 and Social Media for Crisis Communication

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Engaging the Conversation

• Web 2.0 and Social Media for Crisis Communication
• 300-430 Room 214c

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The Great Media Shift
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The Great Media Shift
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39
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Web
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9
Both
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Print
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25
2006
2008
Source http//pewresearch.org/pubs/1133/decline-p
rint-newspapers-increased-online-news
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Why the Shift?

• Newspaper companies failed to respond to growing
  information needs form consumers.
• Enterprising Americans created alternatives.
• Craigslist 1995
• Google News 2001

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The New Media World Order

• Online traditional publications
• Mobile traditional publications
• News Aggregators (Google News)
• Social News Aggregators (Digg)
• Non-traditional media
• Drudge Report
• Daily Show

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Old Faithful
Social Media is Word-of-mouth or Community
Based Marketing that leverages Technology as a
Platformfor Conversations. Erica OGrady

• We trust what our friends tell us
• We trust what our friends friends tell us
• We trust anything enough people tell us

• Word of mouth is the oldest and most
• reliable form of communication.

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Why Should We Care?

• Social media is fast.
• Social media is not controlled.
• Everyone carries a portable news gathering
  device.

There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry
going to pick up the people. Crazy.
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Social Media Revolution

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vsIFYPQjYhv8

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• If somebody is saying 'My house is on fire' and
  it's in an area that has wildfires, well,
  obviously that's not official data. But they're
  telling us their house is burning down. They're
  shooting video of their house on fire. I consider
  that pretty good information.
• - Craig Fugate, FEMA

Source http//techpresident.com/blog-entry/interv
iew-craig-fugate-director-federal-emergency-manage
ment-agency-fema
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• So, what now?

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Understand the Ethos

• Web 2.0 is transparent.
• Web 2.0 is direct.
• Web 2.0 is fast.
• If you are too, you will build trust. The
  currency of communication today is trust.

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Transparency

• Always identify yourself.
• Disclose your objectives.
• Answer questions honestly.
• Offer insight into government processes.
• Don't be afraid of being honest.

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Directness

• No more press release speak.
• Use personal pronouns.
• Have a little heart.

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Speed

• You will sometimes have better information.
• Communicate better information, fast.
• You can never be as fast as us.
• Say what you know.
• Update frequently.
• The JIC's new role is primarily rumor control.

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Improve your Plans and Processes

• Update your plans to streamline the approval
  process.
• Create Social Media monitoring job aids.
• Get IT and legal approval for software.
• Give the PIO more autonomy for communication.
• Shorten the distance info needs to flow.
• Facilitate two-way information flow with the JIC.
• Add regular incident updates to your
  communication plan, between news releases.

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HouSnow Example

• During our winter weather event we set up a tag
  for our posts HouSnow
• We evangelized the tag, even switching most
  conversation from storm09
• Thousands of posts tagged with HouSnow
• Monitored Twitter and Facebook using TweetDeck
• Community established Google Wave
• Saw a tweet about Hwy 6 being flooded over and
  re-tweeted it, 30 minutes or so later it was
  verified through official channels.

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Choose a Platform for a Hub

• Pick a content management system (CMS) that
  embraces open formats.
• Be sure your CMS has an approval process and can
  be used by everyone in your office.
• You need to either host it of have a service
  level agreement with the host with up-time
  guarantees you can live with.
• Build ties from your CMS into Social Media sites.
• Take home to your geek XML, RSS, API, Open
  Source, extensible.

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Hub and Spokes

• Your CMS becomes the hub, the social media
  services are the spokes.
• We can't trust a third-party company like Twitter
  to stay up when you need it, irregardless of
  track record.

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California Wildfire Before

• In 2007 a community effort built a tool called
  CrisisWire that monitored wildfire information.
• Twitter ran amok, providing rapid-fire updates.
• In 2008 California wildfires we had a mole.
• Efforts taken to snuff out mole were
  unsuccessful.
• Why did we have a mole?
• What fundamental problem was he solving?

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California Wildfires After

• In 2009 LA Fire started a Twitter account.
  (http//twitter.com/LAFD)
• If it was important, LA Fire would have tweeted
  about it.

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Good Tools to Use

• Content Management System (Hub)
• Google News Search
• Google Blog Search
• Google Analytics
• Google Reader
• Bit.ly (Web-based)
• TweetDeck (Desktop)
• HootSuite (Web-based)
• Seesmic (Handheld / Desktop)

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The importance of Openness

• Mash-ups are how the community can have it your
  way.
• Using an open platform ensures that operations
  can be easily resumed if one spoke breaks.
• The information being posted is public anyway,
  and should be used and re-used by them.
• If attribution is a concern, consider Creative
  Commons Share-Alike 3.0 United States
• http//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/

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Sites to be on (for now...)

• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Flickr
• SlideShare
• Delicious
• Apps.gov

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Determining what services to use

• Acceptable terms of service?
• Easy to use?
• Easy to integrate?
• Accomplishes your objectives.
• Will it make less work for you?

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Example of Service Justification

• YouTube SLA approved by Apps.gov
• Special YouTube Gov account gives flexibility.
• Intuitive interface.
• Publishes RSS feeds.
• A video can save you an hour of update work.

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What is Twitter?

• Twitter is like posting text messages to the web.
• Posts and replies are public.
• Information can be re-tweeted (forwarded)

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Setting up Twitter

• Official Account
• Work Account
• Personal Account
• RSS-to-Twitter of Twitter integration

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How Twitter Works

• Community posts update.
• TweetDeck and Seesmic hear the tweet.
• We're alerted to new tweet.
• We reply to or re-tweet the information.
• We post updates.
• Community re-tweets or replies.
• Replies are logged and replied to.

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What's Facebook

• An interactive yearbook.
• Users post pictures, video and status updates.
• Walls are like community bulletin boards.
• Organizations have pages and fans, people have
  profiles and friends.

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Setting up Facebook

• Page for your Agency
• Import notes via RSS
• Personal Account
• Add administrators

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How Facebook Works

• Updates from our website post automatically.
• Community posts comments or posts.
• We reply to posts using personal accounts.

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Common Objections

• Misinformation will spread.
• I don't have the time.
• We cannot keep up.
• What about the haters?
• What about viruses and malware?

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Summary

• Web 2.0 is the community's plea for more info.
• Ignoring this need will make us obsolete.
• Web 2.0 needs to be part of your plans.
• Services can be integrated.
• We go where the people are.

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• Questions? I'll stay around for a few minutes.
• Feel free to follow-up by email, I'm happy to
  help.
• Leave your card if you want a copy of this
  presentation.